How Am I A Hero?
by TwistedSaiyan
Summary: Izuku is trying to figure out how to deal with someone he loves potentially being in the line of fire, and how can he be the number one hero if his girlfriend gets hurt? Rated M just in case for later chapters, Slow Burn romance, IzuMina, MinaDeku
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello, this is the first time that I've ever written a story, so please review and let me know if I have a future in this lmao. Also, maybe a bit of OOC and some canon deviation as I've only watched the anime and looked at parts of the Yakuza and Culture Festival arcs. Also also, I'm not Japanese or even that in-tune with Japanese culture and honorifics, so I'm gonna forego them entirely for fear of fucking them up.**

 **This takes place immediately after the Sports Festival arc. I do not own BnHA.**

* * *

Izuku was conflicted. On one hand, he felt amazing about helping Todoroki find some form of closure over his fire powers. It wasn't much, but it was a decent start. On the other, _he really wanted to win._ All Might had told him to announce himself to the world, and yet he had let him down. Not exactly the best way to make a splash in his first tournament, as he didn't even get the bronze. And the way that he had gone about fighting had been gruesome, to say the least. He was hoping that a few Pros would admire his grit and determination, but he knew it was a long shot.

After leaving Recovery Girl's station, he walked back to his classroom with his arms and leg in casts, so he was decently stiff and slow on his way over. When he opened the door however, he was jumped by four of his classmates: Eijiro Kirishima, Mina Ashido, Rikido Sato, and Tsuyu Asui. "Hey, great job out there man! You were so hardcore out there!" "Your dodging was pretty great!" "Hey, the name's Rikido Sato, you were great out there." " _Kero,_ great job out there Midoriya. Also, you can call me Tsu from now on." All these compliments were starting to get to Izuku. He was starting to blush and stammer again, blowing the little control he had over them due to the sheer _amount_ of praise he was getting.

"T-thank you guys, but I didn't e-even make it that far." Izuku said, stumbling through his words. "E-even if I beat Todoroki, I wouldn't have stood a chance against Kacchan."

"Yeah, but Todoroki obviously assumed you were worth using his full power, as opposed to Bakugo, _kero_. You still did very well, as opposed to Mina over there." Tsuyu bluntly stated.

"Heyyyyy, that's a low blow, Tsu!" Mina complained, temporarily losing her near-constant smile. However, it almost immediately came back when she turned back to Izuku. "Even if you didn't get a medal, you still kicked some ass out there! I'm actually kinda jealous." Mina started scratching the back of her head, both in slight embarrassment and awkwardness.

This amount of compliments, from not one but _two_ girls in his class, was sending Izuku into a near catatonic state. It took him a good ten seconds to recover, but as soon as he did, he realized that Mina, Sato, and Tsuyu (he was assuming, at least, mostly because of her perfect poker face) all were looking a little bummed about how they ended up in the rankings as well. "H-hey, you all still did pretty well! Sato and Asui, I know you guys didn't make it into the top 16, but your teams were one of the next ones up, so you should still be really proud of how you did! And Ashido and Kirishima, you guys got into the top 8! You should be really proud as well."

Mina and Sato both looked a little better about themselves, with Sato smiling ever so slightly, and Mina standing up a little straighter. Kirishima was on the verge of tears, as this was one of the best shows of manliness he had ever seen. "Damn Midoriya, you were upset about how you did in the tournament, but as soon as someone else is even slightly upset, you make it your mission to cheer them up! That's a real man for ya." Kirishima said, with a huge grin on his face.

Tsuyu, while moved by Midoriya's show of kindness, still had a slight problem. "Midoriya, what did I just tell you to call me?"

"Uhhhh, Ts-Tsu, right?" Izuku said, blushing fiercely now.

"Right, _kero_ , so I'll hold you to that from now on." Tsuyu firmly stated, not giving Izuku any room to argue, even if he wanted to. Unknown to Izuku, however, while Tsuyu told all of her friends to call her that, she had another, more personal reason for wanting him to call her that. Her poker face was slightly broken as she gave the smallest smile while saying it. Neither Kirishima nor Sato noticed this, but Mina, priding herself on being able to read people, did.

' _Damn, does Tsu have the hots for Midoriya? Guess I'll have to wait and see how this one ends up.'_ Mina thought to herself. She had a hobby (Toru would call it an obsession) for pairing up her classmates, but like the rest of the class, they all just assumed it would be Izuku and Uraraka together, or at least whenever one of them decided to get some confidence and ask the other out. However, with this new _information_ , Mina promised herself that she would sit down tonight and go back over Midoriya's potential pairings.

This all happened within about three seconds, so Izuku was too flustered to notice Tsuyu's face while saying that, nor pick up on Mina looking almost scary, trying to figure something out. Of course, Sato and Kirishima had started to talk to each other while the girls were focused on Izuku, and it somehow ended up turning into who could arm wrestle better with their off hand.

Izuku decided it was time to abort mission and reset before he made a fool out of himself, so he excused himself to get his bags and leave to go home. Mina, however, had other ideas.

* * *

"Heyyyyy Midoriya!" Izuku, walking to the train station by himself to cool down, heard his name being called, so he turned around to see who it was. While he was half-expecting Ochako, he wasn't too far off.

"H-hey A-Ashido. Sorry f-for asking, b-but why are you coming this w-way?" Izuku inwardly cursed as his stuttering got even worse when being alone with a girl, and a very pretty one at that.

"Oh, this? I usually take this train to go home, but I saw you leaving and I wanted to ask you somethin'." Mina came jogging up beside Izuku in an attempt to start another, more private conversation. However, while she was a bumbling ball of joy, she didn't know where to start talking with him, mostly because if she was blunt he'd clam up, but if she stalled too long, she would miss her opportunity and start filling in the blanks herself, which was a _dangerous_ game to play.

"Uhh, s-sure, g-go for it." Izuku was terrified of what she was going to ask, simply because he had barely (read: never) spoken to Mina, whether in a group or alone, and he had no idea what she was thinking about. The most he knew about her was her acid quirk and that she was a social butterfly.

"Is there anyone you got your eye on, like, _romantically_?" Mina asked, opting for the direct approach.

Izuku has crashed, please restart.

"W-WHAT? W-what m-made y-you a-ask that?" Izuku flushed red, realizing he was right to be terrified of this energetic ball of pink fluff.

"Dunno, just a thought I had - if you liked anyone I'd figure it'd be Ochako, but I just wanna ask so that I have the real answer, ya know?" Mina said, leaning in and giving a small smirk. She knew that she wouldn't be able to get any answer out of him, so she decided the best way to find out was the shotgun approach - ask about every girl she knew talked to him in some sort of fashion and judge his reactions. She thought it was a pretty solid plan, given how she wasn't very academically inclined. "So is it her?"

"N-n-n-o, me and Och-chako are just friends, I-I don't feel that way f-for her." Izuku said, trying to lean away from Mina now that he knew what she was after. ' _Please, whatever God is up there, Poseidon, All Might, Thor, Oprah, I don't care, SOMEONE SAVE ME PLEASE!'_

"Ahhhh, so you like someone else, huh? Who? Who? Is it Tsu? Is it Toru? What about me~?" Mina said, taking a few steps closer to him and absolutely getting into his personal space. When she mentioned her own name, she put on a slightly more seductive smile, and half-closed her eyes in a fake attempt to show interest.

"D-d-d-on't do this right now, please, Ashido! I don't want to talk b-badly about anyone, or list reasons w-why I may or may not like someone, because it just feels mean." Izuku managed to finally stand up and say what he wanted, which was great as it was just in time for his train to get there. Mina picked up that he didn't want to talk to her, and even though it was her train as well, she figured she could wait for the next one if it meant letting Izuku cool down. After all, it was kinda of her fault for pushing him that hard on something he wasn't comfortable with.

That didn't mean she was going to stop herself from redoing all of Izuku's potential relationships.

* * *

 **A/N: Well shit, let's end this on a little bit of a cliff-hanger, why don't we? Planning on this being 5-10 chapters, but as I go if I get more ideas it might expand past that. Also, I'm gonna try and have the A/N at the end of the chapter, and this should be the one chapter where there's 2 A/N's.**

 **Have a good one, and be sure to either boost my confidence or make sure that I never write again by reviewing down below :D**


	2. Chapter 2

Mina was sitting in her room at her desk, procrastinating on her homework. Why would she do geometry when there was something _much_ more interesting to do – figure out who Izuku liked. When she first started to 'ship' her classmates at UA, she didn't pay as much attention to the group she called "Married to Their Work," consisting of Iida, Midoriya, Hatsume, and Aizawa, instead favoring to put more detail into others, like Todoroki, Momo, Toru, and of course herself (Todoroki or Kirishima were the two she was eyeing up the most). She assumed that the way that Ochako and Izuku were constantly hanging out meant that they were both crushing on each other, but looking back on how they talked, it seemed that Ochako was the one with a crush and Izuku was just acting like he normally does, like a blushing pile of nervousness. Now though, it was time for her to reconsider and actually give a decent amount of thought to who Izuku liked, and who liked him.

' _So, I should prolly start with who I think likes him and who doesn't, and why,'_ Mina thought to herself. To start off with, Ochako. She seemed to like him because of his overall cuteness, and knowing her, it was probably Ochako's first crush. ' _I guess I could see how he was cute, but it's in a plain way. Not really my type.'_ Mina was more into the hot-looking guys, like Todoroki, Kirishima, hell even Bakugo or Iida, if they weren't the way that they were. But Izuku was a solid 7/10; only reason she didn't put him higher was because he was like a stock protagonist out of a shounen anime. He did have some traits that she liked, like his hair – ' _It looks just like mine!'_ – or his freckles, but overall she wouldn't pine after him for his looks.

Tsuyu seemed to like him, but for different reasons. Mina guessed it was because he had saved her and Mineta from the villains at the USJ, and how hard he fought Todoroki to not just win, but to also help someone who considered Izuku an enemy. Mina respected that about him, how he could take control of the situation, come up with a very solid plan, and sacrifice himself for others just to make sure they were safe. However, Mina wasn't really a fan of how he would switch back to his awkward, stuttering, blushing self whenever he was outside of those situations. ' _I wonder what could've caused him to end up like that…'_

"Wait…"

Mina paused as she thought of what could make Izuku so terrified of social interactions. She hadn't thought of it since she started to go to UA, but she recognized a bunch of the signs.

' _Stuttering, flinching when people come up to him out of nowhere, his muttering and generally trying to stay quiet, his lack of self-preservation when he was around others…'_

"Was… was he bullied?"

Mina went over to her to her bed and laid down. She was in a completely different mood than she was five minutes ago now that this new thought struck her. Mina had always had problems with bullies, but while she stood up to them and defended others, Izuku didn't seem like the kind of person to do that. She figured he would take it for fear of getting the other person in trouble because that was just the kind of guy he was. She started to see him in a different light, that his cool and confident demeanor in battle was the 'real' Izuku, and the Izuku she talked to this morning was him after what looked like years of being put down. She still had questions about him, but instead of them being romance-related, they were about why he would allow himself to be bullied. With a quirk like his, it made sense he wouldn't use it to attack them, as it might kill someone with its enormous power, but still, he was strong outside of his quirk, so why not fight back?

' _Damn, I really wanna know why he let it happen, but if it goes anything like it did at the station, he might not answer me at all and just leave.'_

"Ughhhhhh… why are you like this, Midoriya?" Mina suddenly sat up again, thinking of something that might help her understanding of him, raising her mood almost immediately.

' _Wait… if I started to talk to him more, I might be able to break him outta his shell, and then if he's more confident, he won't freak out as much about those questions!'_

"That's it! I'll just sit at his table tomorrow and start talking to him like all of my other friends! Eventually he's gotta warm up to me, right? No one can resist talking to me!" Mina shouted, realizing her plan with pure happiness. She wasn't being narcissistic or boasting about herself, just that she knew who she was as the class-clown and resident talker.

"And I'll get to see how he talks to Ochako and Tsuyu up close! It's a win-win!"

* * *

The next day at UA, the morning was fairly slow since there was no combat training, seeing as the Sports Festival was still fresh in everyone's mind. Aizawa did say something about internships, but Mina wasn't paying that much attention to it as he said he would talk more about it after lunch.

Mina got her usual lunch from the pro-hero Lunch Rush, natto and okra, and instead of sitting at her normal table with Momo, Jiro, Kirishima, and Kaminari, she decided to sit at Izuku's table. She grabbed the open seat next to him, and almost immediately starting to talk to everyone there: Izuku, Ochako, Iida, Tsuyu, and Todoroki.

"Heyyy guys, how's it goin'? Those internships sounds like they're gonna be a lot of fun, huh?" She said excitedly. Todoroki and Izuku both looked a little confused as to why she sat at their table, but Ochako almost immediately answered, "Yeah, I can't wait for 'em! They're apparently really important for when you graduate so you can line up a job at a good agency, so we gotta pick the right ones."

"Indeed, it's extremely important for everyone here to ensure that they pick an internship not only fitting for your quirks, but also near the area you plan to set up your own agency, as you want to have beforehand knowledge on the area you are patrolling." Iida said, assuming his role as class president with no hesitations. However, he still felt the need to help his friends pick good agencies for their future. "If you guys want, I may be able to put in a good word with my brother at his agency to offer you all spots, if of course you do not prefer any of you other options."

"Wait, Iida, who's your brother?" Mina asked confusedly. Everyone was looking at Iida in the same way, as this was new information for all of them.

"Ah, right, I should probably tell you all who my brother is. I am the younger brother of Ingenium, otherwise known as Tensei Iida!" Iida said, looking extremely proud as he loved his brother and how well he did his job as a pro-hero.

"Wooaahhhh, Iida, you've been holding out on us!" Ochako looked almost jealous of the fact that Iida was related to a pro-hero as big as Ingenium.

"WHAT!?" Izuku looked ecstatic. He started asking Iida a ton of questions about his brother's agency, the side-kicks there, and how many cases his brother has solved. Mina looked at Todoroki and Tsuyu, as this was her first time seeing his passion for heroes manifest past his notebooks and muttering, but they looked back at her and shrugged, letting her know it was par for the course with Izuku whenever pro-heroes came up as a topic.

" _Kero,_ you get used to it."

"Don't worry about it, he does this a lot."

Izuku finally pulled himself out of his obsession to notice Mina looking kind of weirdly at him, and the other two saying that it happens a lot. It hurt more than he expected.

"O-oh, sorry, I-I didn't mean to get that excited." Izuku started eating his lunch much quicker than he had before, almost choking several times. Everyone at the table noticed Izuku's shift in attitude – he went from excited and curious to quiet and trying to hide as soon as he noticed someone talking about his odd way of expressing interest, but no one knew how to let him know that they didn't mind his questions and passion for pro-heroes.

"S-sorry guys, I just remembered I had to d-do something." As soon as Izuku finished his lunch, he got up and left the cafeteria, almost jogging to get away. Everyone was concerned for him, of course, but because of how shy and scared he seemed they didn't want to push it.

Except for Mina.

"Hey, guys, 'scuse me but I'm gonna go see if something's up with Midoriya." Mina stood up and looked towards the door where Izuku had left.

"Hey, Mina? Forgive me for asking, _kero,_ but when did you become such good friends with Midoriya?" Tsuyu asked, keeping her stoney-faced exterior, but on the inside, she was just as worried as Mina was, and also slightly jealous that Mina wanted to go help out Midoriya. "I can go with you to talk to him if you want, _kero,_ but I didn't realize that you two talked that much."

"Nah, we really only talked yesterday, but I wanted to ask him a few questions kinda related to how he was actin' just there. They're kinda private though, so sorry, but I think I should talk to him alone." Mina noted how there was a slight hint of concern and jealousy in Tsuyu's voice, all but confirming there was some sort of affection for him in the frog-girl.

Todoroki, while wondering what was wrong with his new friend, had other ideas on how to handle the situation. "Maybe we should let him cool down and come back later." He knew exactly what it was like to want to be away from people, namely his father and the paparazzi, and the best solution for him was to just cool down alone. Mina, however, wasn't going to let that happen.

"Sorry Todo, but I still wanna ask him what's up. See you guys back in class." Mina finally left the table and went through the doors where Izuku had gone, leading towards stairs that eventually led to the roof. Mina decided to take her chances and go all the way up to see if he was there, because she figured he wouldn't want to chance being seen by other people while he was upset. As she went to open the door leading out on the roof, she heard someone sniffling on the other side of it. She quietly sat down next to the door and just listened, hoping that it wasn't who she thought it was, but at the same time knowing it was.

"H…hey, Midoriya? Is that you? Are… are you okay?" She asked quietly, but enough so that he could hear her. The sniffling stopped almost immediately.

"A-Ashido? Is t-that y-you?" A voice softly asked back, silently giving the answer that no, he was not okay.

"Yeah, it's me, I was wondering what was up when you left the table. We're all worried about you, so can you open the door and talk to me?" Mina asked, almost pleading with him to let her, and everyone else in so that they could help Izuku out.

"Y-yeah, just let me open the… uh, Ashido? C-can I ask a favor?" Izuku asked, sounding equal parts embarrassed and upset.

"Yeah, sure, what's up?" Mina asked, confused as to why he hadn't opened the door yet.

"Can…can you h-help me open the door? I-I think it's jammed…"

"Oh, yeah, sure, do you want me to push when you pull or should I just melt it?"

"W-well, I tried pulling, but I-I don't think we should destroy school prop…" He was cut off by the sound of the door melting in front of him, giving him a nice 3 foot square to duck through. Mina, while giving a small smile, looked almost nervous when she met Izuku's eyes.

"T-thanks I guess, but we probably shouldn't have done that…"

"Hey, Midoriya, do you want to talk about why you looked so upset at lunch? Did I do something wrong?" Mina asked, almost looking like she was about to cry. She didn't know why he had just up and left the table, but she figured it was partly due to her guess that he had been bullied, and combined with the fact that she showed up to the table the one day he looked upset and left, it hurt her to see someone so sad and trying to remove themselves from their friends.

"Not… not right now, no. S-sorry Ashido, but I'm just not in the mood to talk about it at school." He looked so downtrodden, it pained Mina to see him this hurt.

"Oh, okay. Here, give me your phone." Mina held out her hand.

"W-why?" Izuku asked, but he still did what she asked and gave her his phone. After a few seconds, she gave it back.

"There's my number. If you ever wanna talk about it with someone, just shoot me a text. Ya know, you aren't the only one who's had to deal with bullies. I can help, trust me." She took a potshot with her guess, letting him know that she was open to talking and not going to judge him for being in a bad place in his life. Izuku saw that, and while he knew she was just guessing, it hit close to home for him.

"T-thanks, Ashido, you'll b-be the first to know. We should p-probably get back to class though, lunch is almost over."

Mina smiled, knowing that he wasn't lying to her. "Yeah, let's go back. The others are pretty worried, so you should prolly let them know you're fine."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys, so the first chapter blew up wayyy more than I expected, and apparently, it was good. This is news to me, so I was actually so pumped up by the attention it got that I wrote out this chapter and just went with it. I was expecting it to be about half as long, but I love the fact that it kinda dove into Izuku and Mina more as friends, with the other stuff being put off for a bit. Also, I know I said 5-10 chapters, but the way I have the story planned out I think I may have underestimated the size of what this fic may be. Anyways, be sure to leave a review and let me know what you think about it!**

 **A/N 2: Sorry I know this went up before I wanted it too, new to the site and all, but I still had some edits I wanted to do. Anyways, this was the completed chapter that I really liked.**


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